FACTS & QUESTIONS ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
Apologies if this page does not read well. Microsoft Word in Office 2003 produces verbose messy html code. (An example is altering of line breaks and spaces between lines or paragraphs - sometimes extraneous, sometimes suppressed.) I have to go through and cull it.
(Note too that I have not yet made all URLs into active links.)
Herein:
- A collection of information on flora and fauna, and climate matters, including some obtained primarily from credible sources that promote preservation of the vegetation or wild-life types discussed herein.
- references to questions raised about climate alarmist claims, especially those blaming humans, with many links
- some information on chemical risks
- a discussion of knowledge factors: "how do you really know what you claim to know?", critical to environmental debates and to life
TABLE OF CONTENTS
> "Spirit" bears
> Horses
> Marmots
> Panda bears
> Snakes
> Turtles
> Frogs/Toads
> Honey bees
> Spotted Owls
> Other Birds
> Comments:
- What is a species?
- Where are they?
FLORA
> Trees
- Garry Oak
- Arbutus
- Clayoquot Sound
CHEMICALS
> Pesticides
> Dioxin
> Radioactivity
EPISTEMOLOGY
> Hunter-gatherer society
> LACK OF BASIC LOOKING FOR INFORMATION
> Extrapolating from a single data point
> Jumping to a conclusion about a causal mechanism
> Missing factors
> An epistemology horror show
> Some people wise up
FAUNA
Even proponents of
saving the Kermode bear advise that they are just a colour variant of the black
bear. (Other colours include red (a reddish brown), blue (bluish gray), and
basic brown.)
(Grizzly bears and polar bears are a different type of bear.)
Experts do not know what specifically causes the white colour in bears along the coast of BC and well inland - who are not all isolated (such animals may travel of course, to find food and emptier territory).
They do point out that colour varies with season, due to diet and the different colour of two types of hair on a bear (short fine hair and courser outer hair whose length may vary with season). In particular, the Kermode bear may have an orange tinge when they eat salmon on the island where a concentration of them live (the salmon ingest something in the water which transfers to the bear's hair).
(Native people referred to the bears as "spirit" bears because of their ghostly colour. But obviously they are real animals. Modern (non-mystical) epistemology shows us they are simply one of several colour variations of black bears, not a separate type. However, it is the nature of environmentalists to claim every variation is a different species, while working against individualism for humans.)
Marmots:
Some people like to
claim that the decline in the variant of Marmots found on
And articles and
letters in the Times Colonist from August 10 thru 15, 2007 indicate that:
- there are 14 types of Marmots, the
- one marmot raised in captivity travelled 20 km over a river, clearcut,
and mountains to the location of one group of Marmots. (Thereby contaminating
its gene pool from the viewpoint of environmentalist activists, but that is
good from the viewpoint of those who were concerned about inbreeding if Marmots did not travel to other mountains.)
- Marmots died out two
decades ago in
An article suggests that the Marmot population rebounded when areas of forest were clearcut, because they provided habitat features they were accustomed to, but then declined as predators discovered their new locations. (They do not live in the forest, but in meadow-like areas.)
- Predators such as
cougars, eagles and wolves are the primary cause of loss - usually close to the
burrow which is of course where they spend much time, perhaps relaxing too
much. (I suspect such predators are more common today as they are not hunted as
much - cougars in particular are common on
- Marmots raised in captivity adapted quickly to the wild (these are of course instinctive creatures and the people who raise them for release keep at arms length to avoid familiarity with humans).
Much of this came out in the media because environmental activists were making false claims. (And for a rabid enviro-nut, consider the op-ed article by Ingmar Lee attacking the Marmot recovery program in the April 2, 2004 issue of Salt Spring Village Views - just another enviro-screamer given too much help by media. (Of the same name as the person who was a ringleader in initiating physical force against individuals at the road interchange construction site in Langford B.C. in 2007 and 2008, where environmentalists were living in trees and eating off the land including animals.)
Panda bears:
A British naturalist is critical of Panda bearss for their habits that don't support survival of the species. (Victoria Times Colonist 20Sepember2009).
Horses
Snakes
Another species that is claimed to be marginal in southwestern BC is the "sharp-tailed
snake", which flourishes to the south (approximately the same areas that
the Garry Oak flourishes, but reported as far to the northeast as
(The sharp-tailed snake is often reddish on top
like earthworms, black lower down, with transverse black stripes on bottom,
plus that spike tail - about 10 inces long, as thick
as a pencil but far more wiley (well, I mean than an earthworm, pencils aren't in the competition. :-) They may be more noticeable in the spring as they venture into the sun then.)
- sources www.bcreptiles.ca, BC government publications WR57 & WLAP857216.304, and
the Driftwood and Island Tides newspapers.
Turtles
Similarly, the Western Painted Turtle is small and difficult to see. About the size of a two-dollar coin, its upper shell is bluey black like some sea life. (Its underneath is a bright red pattern.) I doubt small turtles are noticed much as they normally move too slowly to make much noise or be detected as motion.
Frogs/Toads
Several people with nothing better to do have been fussing about bullfrogs invading ponds in the Victoria area. One person is managing to get paid some tens of thousands of dollars per year to capture them from some ponds and dispose of them. But other people say they are not a significant threat - for example, the letter "Bullfrog control futile, unnecessary" by Lawrence E. Licht in the Times ColonistNovember 7, 2009 suggests that they can be prolific breeders and are territorial so culling is useless, and that they stay in a specific type of environment whereas other frogs live elsewhere so won't be harmed by the big frogs. (http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Bullfrog+control+futile+unnecessary/2196440/story.html) Hint - not all frogs live in water. Hint - some other types of frogs will eat young bullfrogs. Why don't the concerned people work on the problem of homelessness and violence in downtown Vancouver.
Honey bees
After years of speculation about the cause of "colony collapse disorder, including a theory that cellular phones were causing the death of bees, it turns out that a parasite is to blame - along with poor housekeeping practices. According to an article in the Saanich News of July 20, 2009, quoting a lare established honey operation, the Nosema ceranae parasite damages the bee's immune system, thus it is susceptible to many things including chemicals used to protect them from other parasites. As well, beekeepers should watch buildup of substances in the hives and wax honeycomb over many years, and look for mold and mildew (which can occur on plastics). I comment that the news explains why some beekeepers did not have a problem.
An article in Earth for Man says that the "Northern" Spotted Owl is just a sub-species of the Mexican Spotted Owl, and that the likely cause of its decline is competition for food from the Barred Owl which is less fussy about where it hunts. (Hmm, see Jumping to a conclusion about a causal mechanism and Missing factors herein.)
Other Birds
The barred owl's success
may illustrate a fact of reality - living things do shift their habitat over time. Perhaps they evolve slightly, which may be enough to survive in a modestly different climate. People breed plants and
animals selectively to more quickly obtain different characteristics than evolution would - for example, a variant of the palm tree is grown south of
So the fact that the robin, seemingly a relatively hardy bird, has been found further north than expected may or may not be the result of warming of the local climate, but rather just a result of more or better food available for some reason like increased precipitation resulting in more stagnant water thus more mosquitos to eat. Or the result of a deviant bird eploring a bit and bringing others back with it. (Animals are very good at chasing food, as killer whales have reminded us - they come and go as food supply shifts (they are visually identifiable as individuals, thus the return of previously spotted ones can be observed). Food is after all required for survival, so those who aren't as successful at finding food will perish while others will pass on their more successful traits to offspring. (The old expression "tends to sharpen the mind" comes to my mind. For animals the focus is much more instinctual than for humans, they seem good at sticking to the need though we don't normally hear of those that aren't because they die quietly in a corner and get eaten by other animals and birds.)
Sea Lice
A hot topic, with allegations that the existence of salmon farms in the ocean along the B.C. coast is causing sea lice to harm wild salmon. But farmers claim their salmon are free of lice when placed in the ocean pens, so the lice that show up on their salmon must come from wild salmon. (Reference Business Examiner newspaper of May 2, 2008.)s And in 2009 the returns of pink salmon, the species environmentalists claim would be worst affected by fish farms, was extraordinarily high.
WHAT IS A SPECIES?
In the foregoing regarding birds and animals you can see a common thread of defining a species very narrowly. Most if not all those cases are at most simply a sub-species but in some cases the very same thing. But environmentalists like to claim that the salmon from every river are a different species.
WHERE ARE THEY?
Probably most times
living their lives oblivious to humans, but sometimes consciously avoiding humans - are they likely to be seen? Well, crows and raccoons live around humans and human pets, but many creatures do not and some like cougars are very stealthy. How visible are they? I suggest often not very, given the amount of vegetation compared to the population of even plentiful wild animals, and their size - I expect you can hear a grizzly bear moving through the bush, but a spotted owl? (Besides, aren't owls night creatures? Not many humans roaming the forests at night – it is dangerous (you might trip and hurt yourself – it’s dark in there, with fallen trees and ravines, risky even in dayight).)
1. Garry Oaks
According to a BC government pamphlet that is generally in favour of preserving those trees:
- they
are the remnants of vegetation from 5000 years ago when the local climate was much warmer and drier. (They thrive in what is called a "Mediterranean"climate, which much of northern
- they
also prosper in burned areas, which may be why they are surviving on
- theburning and the deer may produce the openness of the stands of oak by eliminating young trees.
(In
(Note two things in the
above:
- a basic type of farming by aboriginals (control of vegetation to maximize harvest;
control of animals for use by humans)
- the
question of what is "natural". Since the climate of SE VI no longer
suits the species, and their existence here is supported by human activities,
are they at all "natural" at this time? (Of course humans are
natural, as is everything on earth except the moon rocks brought back by
astronauts, but environmentalists are anti-human.)
Reference ISBN
0-7720-7469-8 of October 1993, Garry Oak Ecosystems,
2. Arbutus
trees
Some people claim that Arbutus trees are at risk because they only grow in limited areas and require
good sunlight. But they are flourishing on a hillside on the north side of the
highway to
(This one called Madrone in
Northwestern Alberta
A shortage of trees? Hah! Drive the main highway from
Look around you!
4. Clayoquot Sound
Those who thought that
logging had ended in the area after extortionists like Betty K. claimed to have
succeeded may be interested in timber harvesting operations of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe (www.iiasaak.com) and Ecotrust
And in why the Iisaak hired Ecotrust to regain their FSC eco certification (crucial to getting good prices, apparently) and "turaround" the operation ("improve the financial, social, and environmental performance" of Iiasaak). The inference is that logging is OK if done by certain people, but they have to hire outsiders to run things properly. (Quoting from the report, regarding the "Iiasaak" forestry company owned by the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe, "The company's performance did not meet expectations during its initial years".
Of course enironmentalists in general are so confused they cannot even agree on whether or not new trees are better for the climate than old trees (as CO2 sinks). Here's a technical discussion> of that.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Is normal on earth.
Examples of changes in the past:
> UVic
archaelogists advise that B.C. coastal natives coped
amazingly well with rising sea levels after the last ice age, moving each
generation or so. When levels stabilized about 9,000. years ago they shifted their tool use to cope with limited
availability of stone pieces suitable for a one-point spear (rising sea levels
had kept uncovering fresh supply).
(Reference > The Ring, official newspaper of the
> The same source advises that about 4,000. years ago sea levels on the B.C. coast dropped to their current level. (Hmm - check data from temperature proxies to see if that correlates to a big change in temperatures, the Heartland Institute document “"Reconsidering Climate Change" refers to a time 5000 years ago.)
> There was a warm period
in Europe,
And of course there are
regional variations of varying duration and intensity. For example:
- the central plains of Canada were drier than normal during the 1930s.
- the
Palliser Triangle area of Alberta and Saskatchewan experienced
droughts before European settlers arrived
- areas
of
- we now know of short cycles caused by current fluctuations in the south Pacific
(el Nino etc.).
- a change in the sea between Alaska and Russia caused problems a few years ago for a type of whale that
feeds primarily in that area but winters off the coast of California. For a few years there was more
ice than normal so the whales had difficulty getting enough food. So their health declined. (There's a species that is vulnerable - to mother nature: they eat in only one place in all that big ocean, only in one season. Killer whales are smarter, they move around to find food and have a broader diet. Another variation is the Canadian Lynx and the Great Horned Owl, which are over-dependent on snowshoe hares but will move several hundred kilometres to find more of them - in contrast to their prey who do not venture far. (Reference "What Drives the Ten Year Cycle of Snowshoe Hares? by Krebs et al, published in Biosciene, January 2001. Population of snowshe hares fluctuates greatly with ten-year period, apparently simultaneously over each of three broad areas in Canada - the reason for concurrence is probably movement of the predators, the root cause remains a mystery (perhaps snowfall variation with the North Atlantic Oscillation is a major factor), but many popular theories such as trees resisting rabbits through chemical changes and disease epidemics have been dsisproven. it is a fascinating study that seems to have much good data and several conclusions, but the section titled "Conclusion" is mostly political pandering.)
Evidence
To determine if climate is changing and understand why, facts must be obtained and used in integrated analysis to determine the extent and verify any causal hypothesis.
Here is a comprehensive summary "Reconsidering Climate Change", by scientists, complete with a petition by several thousand scientists.
The following are relevant analyses and comments on some claimed facts:
First, temperature:
(and ice, which is often taken as an indicator of temperature change, though you'd really have to look at the full cycle of evaporation and condensation Study Says Glaciers
Formed During a Very Warm Period)
- Vincent Gray's solid analysis of surface temperature data considers accuracy of measurement methods and compares data sources.
Examples include the correlation of surface measurement changes with location (noteably matching populated areas in cold climates) and discrepancies between surface measurements and other sources including satellite measurements and tree ring records.
Many remote measuring stations were discontinued between 1980 and 2000, according to Vincent Gray. Are enough left to get meaningful results (given year-to-year variations that exceed the magnitude of any trend accumulation)? Non-remote stations are at risk of being inaccurately high because of urban heating effects due to heating buildings in cold climates and the effects of asphalt pavement near the urban measuring stations. (Refer to Vincent Gray's reasoned analysis.
- serious questions have been raised about the processing of temperature data, without adequate answers from proponents:
> The dog ate global warming data ("Interpreting climate data can be hard enough. What if some key data have been fiddled?")
> All in a Good Cause (re cooking data)
> Cherry Picking data
> Cherry Picking of historic proportions (exposing a fundamental error in the Briffa data)
> Ding-Dong The Stick is Dead (further analysis disproving a popular claim that temperatures rose rapidly in recent years and not in the past - the Mann data)
> The Yamal hockey stick implosion in layman's terms (By Bishop Hill, covering the very selective use of data from the Yamal area of Russia that badly skews the analysis, including a report that Briffa's data analysis contradicts the widespread belief that the 11th century was warm.)
> Tree-ring Circus is another plainer language attempt to explain the controversy and the difference between the Briffa-Mann data used y the IPCC and analyses by other scientists. (From "The Shadow of the Olive Tree" website.)
> or another version (The Siberian Tree Ring Circus).
> AUG presentation backs up McIntyre's findings regarding the Yamal data used to get hockey stick result
> A zoomed look at the broken hockey stick graph
> Flawed climate data (Short article by McIntyre on lack of quality or worse.)
> Euro Hockey Team the comment numbers in the 40s get real scary as to the usability of any such data for the purpose of determining long-term climate trends.
> Principles of Dendrology page - a very good resource to understand tree-ring studies
> A web site with links to data.
> More data
Note that the "bristlecone pine" trees used in some tree-ring analyses may survive for thousands of years, so would seem to be a good source of data - has anyone analyzed the California version? (Mann measured some in Colorado, and Steve McIntyre re-visited that site (see article "A Little Secret" at
> There are other methods of determing temperature, apparently including "sedimentary diatoms".
> and other analyses of interest:
- Reconstruction of the Holocene (post Ice Age) environment in northern Fennoscandia
- Multiproxy evidence of `Little Ice Age' palaeoenvironmental changes in a peat bog from northern Poland
http://hol.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/4/625 summary of ??? REF Multiproxy evidence of `Little Ice Age' palaeoenvironmental changes in a peat bog from northern Poland
(My comment: the data selection and processing is very complex, using tools such as Which features observed in a smooth of data are "really there"?, but one thing that puzzles me is why data from only one region as used by Briffa and co has such a large effect on the outcome of what is supposedly a global study.
The earth is an integrated system so it needs to be viewed in total. (It may be that the only useable tree ring data is from that area, in part because the growth of trees at northern latitudes is more likely to be limited by temperature whereas in warmer latitudes availability of water and other factors may often limit growth - thus trees from northern latitudes were selected. That's a guess, there are many factors affecting tree growth, including the possibility of subsurface "ice lenses" at northern latitudes, the question of CO2 in the atmosphere (see later herein), water level, microclimate, unexpected factors like allelopathy and root fungi, and some questions about whether or not tree ring growth is actually constant. There is a discussion in the article "A look at treemometers and tree ring growth" on the Watt's Up With That? website.
Nevertheless a key question by MacIntyre and collaboraters is the question of why Briffa and Mann refused to release raw data for others to check. (Briffa has acknowledged Steve McIntyre's questions and promised more - he was ill for a while.)
- open
water is often experienced at the north pole in the summer.
While transient, it is to be expected since only the surface of the water freezes (thus most of the water
volume must be at a temperature above freezing) and water can easily flow between the Arctic and
- the
fact that glaciers are receding in
- Dr. Greg Holloway of
the
This graph [oops - link missing that actually explains] or this one explains [oops, that is just a plain graph]. Unfortunately that seems to mean that they cannot accurately measure the actual are of sea ice, only the area in wich ice covers more than 15% of the water surface. (Which has not changed in many years. I am skeptical that is is really meaningful, as ice gets moved around by wind and currents, which could decrease or increase the "extent" depending on whether more or less ice respectively is pushed together (thus likely creating more areas with little ice). One reason for using the radar type of sensor is that clouds prevent observation at optical wavelengths, especially in winter. Note that this measurement has validity only as a year-to-year comparison, not a measure of actual amount of ice. This is however another illustration of sensor limitations and various ways of analyzing data - thus the need for caution in using results.)
- A study by Dr.
Holloway and Tessa Sou titled "Is Arctic Sea Ice
Rapidly Thinning?" examines an apparent discrepancy
between submarine and satellite measurements. It concludes that ice moves
around and the submarine measurements were not broadly distributed thus are not representative (noting that it is the volume of ice that is important). (The arctic ice
measurement work comes from the
- the Antarctic ice cap is growing not shrinking
- "Are There Long-Term Trends in The Start Of Freeze-Up And Melt Of Arctic Sea Ice?" by Roger Pielke Sr. on http://climatesci.org discusses a contradiction between predictions that global warming would affect the time between minimum and maximum ice coverage in the artic and actual data.
- http://www.athropolis.com/gloss.htm is a library of information on the Arctic.
- http://www.athropolis.com/map2.htm is a large readable map of the arctic, viewed from above the North Pole.
- Global Warming and Cooling - The Reality by Stephen Wilde
- Monitors Report Worldwide Cooling
My comment: keep in mind that the serious political debate is not over whether or not the earth is cooling or warming, but over whether or not humans can cause global climate change. The standard accusation of environmentalists against humans is production of CO2 by industries, transportation vehicles, and buildings. (I forget what their claim was in the 1970s when their panic was over cooling.)
Second, CO2:
- serious questions have been raised about CO2 data presented by and about what they exclude:
> "The Manipulation of Reality" by Ernst Beck notes the proportions of various gases in the atmosphere and questions measurements of CO2.
> C. R. Scotese and the
Australian Institute of Geoscientists' November 2006 newsletter show records of higher CO2 levels at various times in the past without concurrent high temperatures, and ask probing questions about some measurement methods.
> More from C. R. Scotese
> CO2 is Green (benefits of more CO2 in the atmosphere).
> Top 15 Climate Myths
> CO2 Scandal
> even ice coring may be tricky, with questions raised about escape of some CO2 from the extracted core when removed from the compressed environment it was in.
COMMENT:
> hmmm, when using tree ring data to determine what temperature was back when, what about CO2 levels at time of growth (as CO2 affects growth of vegetation)? Local precipitation is another variable. Sounds tricky.
Ocean currents & winds
Are an interesting phenomenon. Here are some articles/web sites:
(Keep in mind that winds come from pressures, and can move ocean water by friction at the surface, though solar heating may be a more powerful current force.)
The Arctic Oscillation which varies weather in North America north of 20N as well as some of Europe and Asia, and affects the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, noteably bringing more warm water into the Arctic ocean in one part of the cycle - the current situation.
The related North Atlantic Current.
The El Nino and La Nina phenomenon of the South Pacific are well known, especially affecting weather on the west coast of North America.
Causal Theories and Climate Models
The real political question is - no matter whether temperature is increasing or decreasing - "who done it?". The New left claims humans are always guilty, but suspicion is increasing that The Sun is the culprit (that's sun spelled with a u, folks). It is rather difficult to take issue with the sun, it is what it is and tends not to listen to us - criticizing it would be "looking a gift horse in the mouth' as it is the source of life by virtue of the warmth it provides.
- The director of the Geoscience Center at Carleton University is finding excellent correlations between solar fluctuations and temperatures, which doesn't exist between CO2 and past climate changes. (R. Timothy Patterson.)
Kenneth Tapping of the National Research Council in Canada also has data.
Note that the responsible sun activity may be magnetic field not electro-static field, which may not be directly correlated to visible flares or may be an indirect mechanism of ejected particles interacting with the atmosphere.)
- A 1991 report by Danish Meteorological institute correlated world temperatures with solar cycles over the past several centuries, and proposes a causal mechanism of a stronger magnetic field shielding the earth from cosmic rays which seed cloud formation. The CERN centre plans to repeat the experiments done by the DMI.
- Researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany suggest that the sun has been burning brighter for 60 years.
- A Hoover Institution Study showed a correlation of temperature with solar activity and volcanoes. (By Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.)
- Monitors Report Worldwide Cooling
- Link to a challenge to the claim that a warmer climate will have more severe weather.
- Climate Change in Disarray - An African Perspective, Will Alexander, University of Pretoria, South Africa, discusses research showing that climate-change predictions are not ocurring in Africa (no extra flooding - damage is due to less precautions/where people built) and correlation between solar activity and climate, plus a plea to not hurt the progress of poor Africans. (Available from Frontier Centre for Public Policy.)
- Lord Monckton of Benchley (UK) is another critic of climate models.
Recent NASA data,
including by newer satellites and floating ocean probes (
- Climate Change Collapse article
- Australian Researchers Warn of Global Cooling
- Slide 21 of the paper "Cumulative effects of rapid climate and land-use changes on the Yamal Peninsula, Russia", from the - December 2008 AGU Meeting, has an intriguing conclusion: "Kara-Yamal: negative sea ice, positive summer warmth and positive NDVI are correlated with positive phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation and Arctic Oscillation." Obviously oceans, "oscillation" not uninterrupted trend - worth looking into? (Much of the presentation is on land, resource exploration, and local people herding animals.)
Miscellaneous web sites & articles on climate
> All the junk that’s fit to debunk
> Climate Realists (formerly CO2 Skeptics)
> Climate Audit
> A Lukewarm View of Global Warming
> Climate auditing is left to unpaid volunteers
> Global Warming Skeptics Handbook
> Frontier Centre for Public Policy
> Explanations of types of data and links to data
> Climate Skeptics
> a divergence problem
> Discussion of theory explaining why earth cools when solar storms are quiet
Movies on climate
> Not Evil, Just Wrong
> The Four Pillars
> 35 Inconvenient Truths (list of large errors in Al Gore's movie).
> CARBON DIOXIDE AND THE "CLIMATE CRISIS" series from http://www.co2cience.org, including:
- Doing the Right Thing
- Carbon Dioxide & the Climate Crisis: Reality or Illusion?
COMMENT:
With serious doubts as to validity of temperature measurement, CO2 measurement, data handling, and climate models - and the reality that those models don't work - shouldn't people be very careful about taking actions that will harm individual humans, actions such as restricting their mobility and raising the price of energy to heat their shelters?
CHEMICALS
PESTICIDES
Countering the widespread idea that DDT caused thinning of the shells of bird eggs, is this info:
- a
sseven month
- the
- thinning
was a problem before DDT was invented - birds are known to thrive in the presence of high levels of DDT.
Meanwhile mosquito-borne
diseases continue to kill people, including in
DIOXIN
Lots of it produced by forest fires and other burning especially if salt is present, and by some
volcanoes. So don't have a campfire on the beach.
(Reference Trashing the Planet, by
THINGS GROWING IN ODD PLACES
Add to algae growing in
radioactive water and things growing deep in the ocean with little light the
phenomenon of "watermelon snow".
It is actually an algae that reproduces in the snow in spring warming,
providing food for "snow worms" and other creatures. (According The
Marmot, the newspaper of Mount Washington ski area on
See also the 2004 "Welcome to the Comox Valley" supplement to the Valley Record newspaper, and the article Watermelon Snow. Supposedly eating it will give you diarhea,
so head the warning "don't eat snow of any colour". :-) (I've
corrupted an old saying, since the algae supposedly comes in other colours too though much less commonly, and since animal urine is yellow. OK, eat pure white snow if you really need the water.)
Apparently the colouring, which can be widespread, does stain, and can have the smell of watermelon not just the colour. The organisms are dormant in winter and move to the surface of new snow in the spring when water penetrates (and perhaps light is stronger). (The algae live on plant material blown onto the snow, as well as perhaps minerals in water, and are eaten by other small entities who are in turn eaten by flying insects and birds.)
As for "snow
worms", which sounds like another reason not to eat snow, see the
technical paper "Distribution and phylogency of
glacier ice worms", by Paula L. Hartzell et al, in the
NRC Canada publication cited as "Can. J. Zool,
83: 1206-1213 (2005)". They are small (1 to 1.5 cm long and about .275 cm
wide), typically colourful, living on that colourful algae. The paper confirms the existence of snow worms in many low-elevation
temperate glaciers in
Other forms of microscopic algae are found in vegetation, briny pools, hot springs, and animal hair (creating a green tinge), as well as in combination with fungi as "lichen" - fungi occurring all over the place as well.
Nature can seem wierd, but is what it is.
EPISTEMOLOGY
HUNTER-GATHERER SOCIETY
Those who advocate the
simplistic hunter-gatherer life of milennia ago might
be sobered by the death of actor Andre Noble.
The vegetarian known for
his love of "natural" foods including herbs died a few hours after
exploring foliage on Fox Island, near near his family home in Centreville
Yes, mistakes can be made with anything you ingest. Risk is high to people who have irrational friends, such as the drug culture, and when intoxicated as judgement is impaired. A few people have higher risk - a student died in Saanich BC when she accepted a restuarant clerk's assurance that there were no peanuts in a fast food (she had forgotten to bring her allergy kit with her).
If you just grab the "food", how do you know it is edible? Get it wrong and you die!
Comment 1:
Perhaps there is an implicit assumption that human knowledge is instinctual, as it is in large part for animals though much of it taught by parents to their young. So you just know what to eat and avoid. That flawed theory is part of a belief system that denies the efficacy of the human mind.
Comment 2:
Some advocates of the hunter-gatherer type of society have a theory that a settled (agrarian) way of life facilitated unjust control of goods, as the crops had to be stored and thus guarded. To me it sounded like the Christian story of fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, re-written by a Marxist.
(Another problem with hunter-gatherer theories is climate variation with seasons - animal food moves around, berries are seasonal, etc. Is that why aboriginals in central Canada developed pemmican, a dried mixture of meat and berries? (It stores well and is lighter than fresh food thus easier to travel with.)
LACK OF BASIC LOOKING FOR INFORMATION
An individual wrote a sizeable article in which he claimed that the "Arbutus" tree grows only on Southeastern Vancouver Island. But reality is that the tree we call "Arbutus" grows well in the Vancouver B.C. area, and south to central California . (Being called Madrone in the U.S., from Spanish naming practice, whereas in B.C. the Arbutus name came from a Scottish naturalist named Menzies who recognized the tree from elsewhere in the world.)
All those are of the "Arbutus menziesii" species, sometimes called "Pacific Madrone". Other species of the Arbutus genus grow around the world - in the southern US and Mexico, Ireland, France, the Mediterranean and Canary Islands, and southwestern Asia.
Some people claim that Arbutus will only grow in a sunny very exposed location, but in fact it also grows in the forest with some other trees, typically on a well-drained south-facing slope - I have seen such a stand on Vancouver Island, ironically enhanced by human road-building activity.
It is not difficult to find that information in books and on the Internet - simply looking Arbutus up in Wikipedia would educate the writer to the terms Madrone and Pacific Madrone, and its extent, complete with photos - and looking up Pacific Madrone would show a photograph from the well-known Lighthouse Park in West Vancouvers, and reveal that it grows in forests. Why don't activists do some basic homework?
EXTRAPOLATING FROM A SINGLE DATA
POINT
See the discussion of open water at the North Pole as an example.
Another example is claiming that hurricanes are worse which must be due to global warming. But when considered over a season, actual data may show negligible difference from the average of past years (of course normal year-to-year variations can be substantial).
Throughout this page you can see other examples.
JUMPING TO A CONCLUSION ABOUT A CAUSAL MECHANISMMISSING SIMPLE FACTORS
Someone expressed concern about the lack of Mallard ducks in around a small lake.
But it was pointed out that:
- the bright plummage that they recognized the type of duck from was only worn part of the year, the rest of the year males looked like females, much less noticeable.
- for part of the summer the ducks were tending nests on islands and in corners (I comment that bright plummage would be very risky then. From the discussion I gather that the plummage is shed during the "moulting" phase of a duck's yearly life, shedding of much of its feathers.)
- some other types of birds vary their location during the year (I note that animals go where the best food is - they aren't dumb, it's their survival).
Another person knew the shallows on one shore of that lake to long have been muddy because people feed the ducks who walk into the shallows which stirs up mud. I doubt it is extensive in the lake.
Simple explanations instead of alarmist speculation.
Throughout this page you can see other examples.
AN EPISTEMOLOGY HORROR SHOW
I received an email from a cousin and his spouse, claiming that Canola Oil is toxic.
How do they know that? Someone said so on the Internet.
How does that person
know?
a - their grandfather
used it to kill aphids
b - the
plant is a member of the mustard family, and mustard gas was used to kill
people in World War I
c - it
is a genetically modified plant
Never mind the _facts_:
a - any oil may be
useful for drowning small air-breathing creatures, because its high surface tension makes the oil clog small breathing orifices. The cousin lived around people who used oil to combat mosquitos on the farm.
b - turnips are also a member of the mustard family, as in the yellow condiment, and the cousin ate many turnips when
growing up (which didn't seem to stunt his growth - it was a common food where
we grew up). The killing chemical dichlorethylsulphide
was called "mustard gas" simply because of its yellowish colour and slight odour.
c - given the dates when
canola oil and genetic modification techniques were each developed, it is more
likely that the canola oil plant was developed by basic plant breeding methods,
still widely used today, that I learned of in school (the same schools my cousin
and his spouse attended), methods used decades before - to develop rust-resistant
wheat for example. However, genetically modified varieties of Canola are mostly used today,
such as Rhône Poulenc's Canola Line Westar Oxy-235 (not that genetically modified plants are
harmful).
Evaluation procedures of the responsible government agency are here:
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/plaveg/bio/dir/dir9408e.shtml
With nut cases like those people running around, who needs enemies?
(Would I - could I - make up such a bizarre story? :-)
(Canola Oil is a popular vegetable oil, made from the seed of the Canola plant which is a refinement of the yellow-flowered one often called "rape" (from the Latin word for turnip which it is a relative of). Two substances were removed as a precaution for the health of pigs and humans if they consumed large quantities. (It was not toxic per se, but it seemed to cause heart problems in pigs fed large amounts of the husks and had a substance that – while not known specifically to cause human problems - was considered undesirable.)
The article by Mikkleson, Barbara and David P. (2005), in "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Canola Oil and Rape Seed", puts some of the silliness well, and describes a general approach nut cases take, in saying “What we have here is a bit of truth about a product's family history worked into a hysterical screed against the product itself.
Short of a deliberate agenda, which I have reason to suspect may be the case with some critics of Canola oil, there is the epistemology problem of watering down and extrapolating a factor.
For example, a popular book on combining foods for meals advises against eating peanuts as they can cause cancer. The origin of that claim is probably that some foods, including peanuts and corn, are susceptible to a mold that produces aflatoxin which is carcinogenic. It's a major cause of death from liver cancer in Africa, where high humidity and lack of good storage result in high risk of mold, and poor health due to hepatitis and malnutrition leave people susceptible. But in Canada and the US where food quality is good and health is generally good health the incidence of liver cancer is very low.
If poor people follow the books' advice they'll miss a good easy to use source of protein that is often available at low price. And the lack of credibility that may result from the author's irresponsible claim may lead people to tune out, when there may be a worthwhile caution for people with immune system problems - though they probably have much greater shorter-term risks to worry about.
Canola oil is high in both Omega-3 and Omega-6 (whereas salmon and olive oil are high in only one each), low in saturated fat, but like most oils and nuts has significant calories - but like olive oil has no protein or carbohydrates (which peanturs and true nuts do).
There are various edible oils with varying qualities that are important to understand. For example, soybean has a solid range of proteins needed to sustain life.
SOME PEOPLE WISE UP
Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace, woke up one morning realizing that the focus was all negative. So he founded Greenspirit Strategies, going from "..confrontation to the politics of what we should do instead."
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"Science .... looks skeptically at all claims to knowledge, old and new. It teaches not blind obedience to those in authority but vigorous debate, and in many respects that's the secret of its success."
s- Carl Sagan, Phoenix AZ, January 5, 1993
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Intellectual Property of Keith Sketchley - page version 2009.11.16
-----------------------------------------------------------------------TO DO:
- add more climate videos
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- check for duplication between READING and Climate sections
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